(* David Krikorian is a businessman from Madeira who twice ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Jean Schmidt to represent Ohio's 2ndCongressional District.Schmidt is suing Krikorian for defamation, after he called her a “puppet” of special interests for accepting large amounts of cash from the Turkish government. Meanwhile, the Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Schmidt’s receipt of legal assistance from a Turkish-American interest group.)

CityBeatrecently reported that an "odd coupling" of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, a Republican, and State Rep. Dale Mallory, a Democrat, held a joint press conference publicly calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse its 2007 decision banning the pesticide Propoxur so that it can be used to combat bedbugs in apartments and homes.

As anyone who viewed The Enquirer’s Web site Tuesday night or read the newspaper this morning knows, Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Bortz received an advisory opinion from Ohio ethics officials last year indicating he shouldn’t participate in any decisions about the proposed streetcar project.

In this week’s Porkopolis column, I wondered how Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls felt about “being continually used as a human shield” by City Councilman Chris Bortz on an issue of a potential conflict of interest.

Media musings from Cincinnati and beyond

•In a
disturbing decision, public radio’s Radiolab (WVXU-FM 8 p.m. Sundays)
gave Cincinnatian Phil Heimlich critical control over its March 5
program on Phil’s dad, Henry Heimlich.

Phil
arranged the interview with the aging physician, for whom the Heimlich
Maneuver is named. However, producer Pat Walters had to promise to
exclude the voice of Phil’s estranged younger brother, Peter, from any
subsequent broadcast.

Peter is a scathing critic of their father’s therapeutic claims for the Maneuver and more recent medical experiments.

Phil
told Curmudgeon that he feared Walters would ask their father about the
troubled family relationships. “Like any son, I’m somewhat protective
of him,” Phil said. “He’s 93 . . . We don’t let just anybody come up and
interview him.”

Peter told Curmudgeon that he was unaware of this bargain when he cooperated with Walters for the Radiolab story.

I
have no trouble with Phil’s setting conditions for arranging the
interview. My beef is with Radiolab. It could have refused. Similarly,
I’m not going into Heimlich’s therapeutic theories and claims; I’m
writing about Radiolab’s handling of the story.

I’m
troubled by Radiolab’s willingness to silence an important critic and a
source of its information in exchange for access to the elder Heimlich.
Further, if Walters failed to tell Peter about his deal with Phil,
that’s unethical, especially since Walters told Peter, “I want you to
speak for yourself.”

Peter
elaborated in a recent email to Curmudgeon: “I was first approached by
Radiolab last August when they asked to interview me for broadcast. I
wasn't informed that, five months earlier, they'd cut the censorship
deal, so they obtained my interview under false pretenses. Further, in
the following months, Radiolab producer Pat Walters took up hours of my
time, encouraging me to provide him with information and documents. I
only learned about the censorship deal a couple weeks ago, when the
program disclosed it on their website. If I'd known that Radiolab was
this underhanded, I wouldn't have given them a minute of my time -- and
I'd encourage other sources to keep their distance.”

Over the years, Peter has dealt with lots of reporters. I asked, "Have you encountered this kind of deal before?"

Peter responded, “I've never heard of a deal like this . . . and how many other Radiolab stories have included deals like this?”

Radiolab’s
website includes a link to the 25-minute program, including the
interview with Heimlich. Radiolab’s website text says:

“In
the 1970s, choking became national news: thousands were choking to
death, leading to more accidental deaths than guns. Nobody knew what to
do. Until a man named Henry Heimlich came along with a big idea. Since
then, thousands and thousands — maybe even millions — have been
rescued by the Heimlich maneuver. Yet the story of the man who invented
it may not have such a happy ending.

“Producer
Pat Walters wouldn't be here without the Heimlich maneuver — it saved
his life when he was just 11 years old. And one day he started wondering
- who was Heimlich, anyway? And how did he come up with his choking
remedy? Pat had always kinda assumed Heimlich died in the mid-1800s. Not
so. The man is very much alive: he's 93 years old, and calls
Cincinnati, Ohio, home.”

Given
the conflict of interest, letting choking survivor Walters do the
interview was a mistake. Here are the guts of Radiolab’s online
Producer’s Note:

“We made some minor changes to this story that do not alter the substance.

“(W)e
removed the audio of Peter Heimlich, Henry Heimlich’s son, from the
version now on the site. When we approached Henry’s other son Phil to
arrange an interview with his father, one of Phil’s conditions was that
we not air audio of Peter. We thought he’d waived that provision in a
subsequent conversation but he contends he did not. So we are honoring
the original request.”

The
version available online begins with a light-hearted exchange among
Radiolab personalities in their WNYC studio of New York Public Radio.
The conversation between Walters and Henry Heimlich at Heimlich’s home
maintains that chummy tone.

Then
Walters shifts to controversies over Heimlich’s Maneuver to resuscitate
drowning victims and other medical theories. Walters also interviews
experts who disagree with Heimlich. When Walters lets Heimlich speak
for himself, the physician accuses critics of jealousy and
self-interest.

Walters
lets the American Red Cross explain why it (quietly) abandoned decades
of support for the Maneuver as the first response to choking and
returned common backslaps.

“Nonsense,” Heimlich responded.

The
Red Cross also abandoned Heimlich’s name for its maneuver. Now, it’s
“abdominal thrusts.” Heimlich says abdominal thrusts are not the same as
his Maneuver and he’s offended by the whole affair.

Peter — who provided emails from which I worked — continues to press Radiolab
on its decision to erase his voice from its broadcast. Its latest
response refers him to the program’s original online statements.

•Stunning,
avoidable reporting mistakes followed the Boston Marathon bombing. They
began when the New York Post said a Saudi man was hospitalized, under
guardand might be a bomber. Days later, as the hunt ended, CNN said
the captured younger suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was driven away by
police. CNN said Tsarnaev was not wounded or his wounds were so slight
that no ambulance was required. Wrong. He left in an ambulance; his
wounds were so serious that it was unclear when he would speak to
interrogators or appear in court.

•Was
there a gun battle after a Watertown resident saw the wounded man in
his boat and called police? Some media say no gun was found or the
19-year-old didn’t shoot.

•Speaking of mistakes, Businessinsider.com
described another blunder when reporters didn’t name sources or verify
leaks. “According to a source at CNN, the network was the first to
report that a suspect had been identified. Anchor John King sent in a
report around 1 p.m. that a source ‘briefed’ on the investigation had
told King a positive identification had been made. CNN Washington bureau
chief Sam Feist approved that report, according to the source.

“According
to the source, who was reviewing internal email logs, Fran Townsend was
the first at the network to say that an arrest had been made. ‘As I
think everyone knows, we really fucked up. No way around it,’ the source
said.

“The
source said that the network's email network went quiet for a 15-minute
period shortly after the retraction — ‘so people [were] either being
more cautious or getting yelled at.’

“Townsend's
report came around the same time as other outlets, including the
Associated Press and the Boston Globe, also reported an arrest, so it is
not clear whether CNN was the first to make the mistake . . .
Wednesday's false arrest reports also drew a scathing rebuke from the FBI,
which urged the press ‘to exercise caution and attempt to verify
information through appropriate official channels before reporting’."

This
is shabby journalism. CNN went with a report attributed to someone who
had been briefed by someone who knew something. No names. No
identifiable links to investigation. Simply assertions. We could have
waited until CNN verified or debunked the report but editors fear that
hesitation can drive viewers to other, less scrupulous sources. At least
Businessinsider.com appeared accurate in its use of its unnamed CNN sources.

•Social
media — better called anti-social media in the aftermath of the
marathon bombings - spread so much misinformation and falsely accused so
many young men that the FBI had to release images of its suspects: the Tsarnaev brothers. It was the only way to protect wrongly accused men
from vigilante justice, even though the suspects might be following the
chase on their cellphones.

•London’s Daily Mail reported some inadvertent humor among the errors:

Boston’s
Fox 4 scrolled across the bottom of the screen that the suspect sought
in Watertown was “19-year-old Zooey Deschanel.” Alerted to her new and
unwanted celebrity, Uproxx.com said, the 33-year-old star of the Fox sitcom, New Girl, tweeted, “Whoa! Epic closed captioning FAIL!”

Gawker.com
said NBC anchor Brian Williams cut to New England Cable News for an
update on the Watertown chase and listeners heard an unnamed reporter, “Oh, you’re not listening? Well, I don’t know shit.”

•It’s no surprise that Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post was unmatched for sheer bloodymindedness. Here’s the HuffingtonPost.com summary:

The
Post said 12 people had died, when only three had; it said a Saudi man
was a “suspect” in “custody” when he wasn't; and it splashed pictures of
two young “BAG MEN” on its front page even though it did not know
whether they were suspects. They were innocent. One was 17 years old; he
told the Associated Press that he was “scared to go outside.” And that
doesn’t include Post doctoring the photo of an injured spectator to hide
her leg wound.

Rather than apologize, Murdoch blamed others outside the Post.

•Murdoch’s Post wasn’t alone in falsely accusing men of being bombers. The LA Times said “Reddit is apologizing for its role in fueling the social media witch hunts for the Boston bombings
suspects. The social news website . . . became a place for amateur
sleuths to gather and share their conspiracy theories and other ideas on
who may have committed the crimes. The online witch hunts ended up
dragging in several innocent people, including Sunil Tripathi, a
22-year-old Brown University student who went missing last month (and
has since been found dead).

“After viewing the FBI's
photos of the suspects Thursday, Redditors became convinced that
Tripathi was one of the bombers, with countless posts gleefully pointing
out the physical similarities between Tripathi and Suspect No. 2, who
ended up being 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The
growing wave of suspicion surrounding Tripathi led his family to
release a statement the next day saying they knew ‘unequivocally’ that
their son was not involved.

“On
Monday, Reddit General Manager Erik Martin posted a lengthy apology on
the site, saying the crisis ‘showed the best and worst of Reddit's
potential.’ He said the company, as well as several Reddit users and
moderators, had apologized privately to Tripathi's family and wanted ‘to
take this opportunity to apologize publicly for the pain they have had
to endure. We all need to look at what happened and make sure that in
the future we do everything we can to help and not hinder crisis
situations,’ the post said. ‘Some of the activity on Reddit fueled
online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very
negative consequences for innocent parties. The Reddit staff and the
millions of people on Reddit around the world deeply regret that this
happened’."

Reddit
said it does not allow personal information on the site in order to
protect innocent people from being incorrectly identified and
"disrupting or ruining their lives," according to the LA Times. "We
hoped that the crowdsourced search for new information would not spark
exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong," Reddit’s Martin
continued. "The search for the bombers bore less resemblance to the
types of vindictive Internet witch hunts our no-personal-information
rule was originally written for, but the outcome was no different."

The
LA Times added valuable context to what followed the bombings: they “were
the first major terrorist attack on American soil in the age of
Facebook, Twitter
and Reddit. But the watershed moment for social media quickly spiraled
out of control as legions of Web sleuths cast suspicion on the innocent,
shared bad tips and heightened the sense of panic and paranoia.” The
LA Times added that Boston police asked “overeager” Twitter users to
limit what they posted because that overly detailed tweets could
compromise officers' position and safety.

•Detroit
Free Press editors published a detailed online illustration of how to
make a pressure cooker bomb, like that reportedly used by the Boston
bombers. When their brain fart passed, they took down the instructions
and images. Of course, now, anyone can turn to Jimromenesko.com screen shot of the Detroit Free Press illustration . . .

•Newcomers
to the Tri-State puzzle over the lifelong identification with high/prep
school. When a Cincinnatian was involved in the emergency surgical
response to the Boston Marathon bombings, the Enquirer noted he went to
St. X. Only later did Our Sole Surviving Daily tell us he was graduated
from UC’s medical school before going off to Boston for his surgical
residency.

A congresswoman's lawsuit against a local businessman and onetime political opponent is featured in an article today on the popular Politico website.

U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Miami Township) is suing David Krikorian, who ranas an independent against Schmidt in 2008 for Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District and also unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for the same seat last year. He lost that race to Surya Yalamanchili, a former contestant on a reality TV show who lost the general election to Schmidt by capturing 35 percent of the vote.

Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke is asking for a special meeting of the county's Board of Elections to investigate what he says are false claims made by Steve Chabot and Mike Robison.

Chabot and Robison allegedly have told people that State Rep. Denise Driehaus (D-31st District) has contacted the Board of Elections about switiching her name on the fall ballot from Driehaus to her married surname. The implication is that she is trying to distance herself from her brother, Congressman Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill), who is in a heated campaign against Chabot.

Congresswoman sought $6.8M from opponent

Nearly two years after she filed the lawsuit, a congresswoman who lost in the March primary election has dropped her legal action against a political opponent.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Miami Township) told The Enquirer today that she decided to drop her defamation lawsuit against Madeira businessman David Krikorian. Schmidt filed the suit in June 2010, and had sought $6.8 million in damages.

Krikorian is claiming victory in the dispute, and told CityBeat the lawsuit was an intimidation tactic by well-funded special interests.

“Her lawsuit was entirely without merit,” Krikorian said. “It was meant to silence and intimidate me and cost me money. It did not work.”

Krikorian ran as an independent against Schmidt in 2008; he unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for the same seat in 2010 and again this year.

During the ‘08 campaign, Krikorian distributed a pamphlet alleging Schmidt had received “blood money” from the Turkish government in return for her opposition to a congressional resolution that declared Turkey had committed genocide against Armenia during a 1915 conflict.

But the lawsuit proved to be Schmidt’s undoing. She received more than $400,000 in free legal assistance from the Turkish Coalition of America to support her suit. In August 2011 the House Ethics Committee ruled that Schmidt received an “impermissible gift” but didn’t “knowingly” violate the law. She was ordered to repay the coalition, which she has yet to do.

All of the drama took its toll: Schmidt lost the GOP primary earlier this month to challenger Brad Wenstrup. He defeated her 49-43 percent.

“It’s time to move on,” Barrett Brunsman, Schmidt’s spokesman, told The Enquirertoday about dropping the lawsuit.

The Turkish Coalition of America was among Schmidt’s top contributors, donating $7,500 to her 2010 reelection campaign through its political action committee, and donating $7,600 to her in 2008.

Schmidt also traveled to Turkey at least twice while in office. The coalition picked up the tab for one of the trips.

Politico reported March 12 that Schmidt was in Washington, D.C., on Election Day, March 6, at a private luncheon with Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan.

“At times, Rep. Jean Schmidt has been closer to Turkish interests than those of her Cincinnati-area constituents,” Politico’s Jonathan Allen wrote. “Never was that proximity problem more telling than on Tuesday, when Republicans denied Schmidt renomination to run for another term.”

When Allen sought comment for the article, Brunsman refused to confirm if the meeting occurred and sent an email that stated, “I think you have lost your way.”

For his part, Krikorian said the experience has taught him that Ohio needs to pass legislation that penalizes lawsuits filed solely to silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their opposition. Such a tactic is known as a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or SLAPP.

“I think the Ohio Legislature should consider passing an anti-SLAPP statue to prevent these kinds of abuses of the legal process,” he said. “This lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate and silence me by Rep. Schmidt and the Turkish lobby.”

Krikorian apparently lost in the March 6 Democratic primary by just 59 votes to William R. Smith, a virtual unknown from Pike County who didn’t campaign, answer questionnaires or grant interviews. A recount is under way and Krikorian has asked for a federal investigation of Victory Ohio Super PAC, which made robo-calls on Smith’s behalf but isn’t registered with the Federal Election Commission.

Krikorian picked up 14 more votes in Hamilton County on provisional ballots once the results were certified. Meanwhile, Clermont County certifies its results on Tuesday.

West Chester's favorite son — who is now second in line to the presidency — doesn't come off well in the lengthy article by political writer Matt Taibbi, who quotes both named and anonymous sources from both sides of the political aisle who have worked with Boehner over the years.

An investigation by nonprofit journalism group ProPublica
has uncovered the identity of one of the secret super PACs funding
advertisements attacking U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and promoting
his challenger, Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel.

The group is the Government Integrity Fund and is headed
by Columbus lobbyist Tom Norris. Norris’ lobbying firm Cap Square
Solutions employs former Mandel aide Joe Ritter.

Ritter declined to comment to ProPublica about his role
with Norris’ lobbying firm or whether he is involved with the Government
Integrity Fund.

The race between Brown and Mandel is considered vital to
Republicans who want to take control of the Senate and Democrats who
want to hold on to their majority. It has turned into Ohio’s — and the
nation’s — most expensive race.

The Associated Press reported in August that outside
groups — like the Government Integrity Fund — have spent $15 million
supporting Mandel, while similar groups have spent $3 million for Brown.

It’s unknown where the money is coming from because
federal regulations and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United case
allow the groups to spend unlimited amounts of cash on political ads
without disclosing their donors.

Such groups are classified as non-profit “social welfare”
groups, which don’t have to release donor information or register with
the Federal Election Commission. They’re supposed to be “primarily”
engaged in promoting social welfare.

Super PACs aren’t supposed to coordinate with campaigns, but it is common for them to hire politicians’ former aides.

According to ProPublica, Ritter was first hired by Mandel
as an aide when the candidate was in the Ohio Legislature. He was then
the field director for Mandel’s state treasurer campaign and then became
a constituent and executive agency liaison when Mandel won that race.
He left the treasurer’s office after six months to work for Norris’
lobbying firm.

Ritter was part of an ethics complaint filed after a
Dayton Daily Newsinvestigation into Mandel’s practice of hiring former
campaign workers for state jobs. Ritter has contested the charges.

Norris' ties to the Government Integrity Fund was discovered by ProPublica through documents filed with Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT. The Federal Communication Commission requires TV stations to keep detailed records about political advertisers.